Strategic domains

Strategic domains

INFLUENCING POLICY AND LINKING THE RESPONSE TO THE BROADER HEALTH LANDSCAPE

POLICY

A supportive, safe and enabling policy environment is fundamental to reducing the global impact of HIV. However, there is no question that the gap between the creation of international and national HIV policy and the lives of those fighting the epidemic in communities around the world is often too wide. The success of the global AIDS response hinges on greater alignment across these two areas and ensuring that people-centred policy reflects the needs and desires of those whose lives it most directly affects.

Through direct engagement with international agencies, governments and donors, we work to inform HIV policy at the global and national levels. Our priorities include bridging the gaps between the HIV response and the broader public health and development policy environments, and advocating for the adoption of evidence-based and human rights-based policies into comprehensive national HIV plans and guidelines.

Scientific research has been the backbone of the global AIDS response since its earliest days, and the pursuit of innovative research has transformed our understanding of HIV many times over, bringing new tools to fight it in the process. Further advancements promise to reinvent the response in ways we can now only imagine. But for the 1.1 million people who continue to die from AIDS-related causes each year, such new discoveries cannot come soon enough.

By focusing on both basic and implementation science, we work to inspire HIV research that will have the greatest impact on the epidemic in the short and long term. In the name of expanding the HIV research community, promoting interdisciplinary action and bringing creative minds into the fold, we are also committed to supporting the next generation of researchers, particularly those from countries highly affected by the epidemic.

Despite their increasing number and efficacy, biomedical interventions alone will not be enough to bring an end to the epidemic. Vulnerability to HIV and limited access to health services are driven by persistent structural barriers, including stigma, discrimination, criminalization and violence (including gender-based violence). Furthermore, the systematic violation of the human rights of people living with, affected by and at increased risk of HIV undermines nearly every aspect of the AIDS response.

We work to bring attention to these structural barriers and advocate for an AIDS response that prioritizes the advancement and defence of human rights. By creating opportunities for meaningful engagement of communities living with and affected by HIV in research, activism, policy and programme implementation, we aim to give priority to the lived experiences of those who face and fight against such barriers to care every day.